With Rapids behind, Sounders look ahead to Timbers; "This is going to be fun," Burch says

Just minutes after the Sounders knocked off the Colorado Rapids, 2-0, on Wednesday, they turned their attention to the Portland Timbers, their opponent in the Western Conference aggregate-score semifinal that will start at 7 p.m. Saturday at CenturyLink Field and conclude at 8 p.m. Nov. 7 in Portland.

Defender/midfielder MARC BURCH This is going to be fun. Hopefully it’s what everybody wants. Portland thinks they kind of have the edge on us right now, and we’ll see what happens in a two-leg series.

Midfielder/defender BRAD EVANSOn if he is already thinking about Portland: "Yeah, of course. I was already thinking about it beforehand. We haven't been in the playoff situation before so it will be interesting, and I am ready for it.”

Coach SIGI SCHMID“Obviously we’re happy to win the game and advance, that’s the objective in the playoffs. Now we get ready for Portland, then we can talk about Portland. There’s no need to ask who we would rather play with Portland, but we have to see how we heal up from this game. Obviously some guys got banged around—[DeAndre] Yedlin turned his ankle, that’s the reason we had to take him off at halftime.

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(On the lineup for Saturday…) “If we can keep guys healthy, keep them on the field and start playing together, we’re pretty close to playing the same guys today as did on Sunday against LA. That little bit of continuity helped, too. The understanding of the midfield was really, really good. It says a lot of the team and its character and knowing we got to get through this—we got to battle, we got to win. I thought Clint [Dempsey] fought hard, I thought Eddie fought hard. There wasn’t a guy on the field that I didn’t think battled and did what they needed to do to help us win this game.” (On preparing for Portland…) “We got to play them, we got to see. They play a similar formation to Colorado. Formations can be similar—it’s players and personalities that make it different. We’ll develop our game plan and be ready for them.” (On the injury status for Saturday…) “We’ll have to see how people recover. It’s a short turnaround for us so we’ll have to see how people recover and how they feel.”

Below is ticket information from the club:

Seattle Sounders FC will host the Portland Timbers in the first leg of the Western Conference Semifinals on Saturday, November 2 at 7 p.m. PT on the Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field. The match will be broadcast nationally on NBC Sports Network. The second leg will be played at JELD-WEN Field on Thursday, November 7 at 8 p.m. PT. Playoff tickets for Saturday's match are on sale now at the CenturyLink Field Box Office, via www.SoundersFC.com or by calling 800-745-3000. All playoff tickets will be distributed via Ticketmaster's TicketFast online printing. For more information visit www.SoundersFC.com.